


Lady Mary

by kadzubar



Category: Fairy Tales & Related Fandoms
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-27
Updated: 2019-07-27
Packaged: 2020-07-23 00:22:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,472
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20000911
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kadzubar/pseuds/kadzubar
Summary: Lady Mary was young and Lady Mary was fair and Lady Mary was bold.





	Lady Mary

Lady Mary was young and Lady Mary was fair and Lady Mary was bold. Lady Mary had a head of hair as fine as spun gold, and more suitors than she could count but none that she cared for. 

Mr Fox was gallant and Mr Fox was merry and Mr Fox was surely rich. Mr Fox danced with all the ladies but he did not dance with Lady Mary. 

Lady Mary did not care for her suitors but she longed for the Mr Fox who did not care for her. 

Lady Mary was bold and Lady Mary was determined and Lady Mary was lovely, and so, one day, when Mr Fox rode up to her father’s house on his fine grey mare she went up to him and spoke, “Mr Fox, Mr Fox, how do you do this fine day.” 

Mr Fox looked down at the beautiful Lady Mary from atop his horse and replied, “I am all the better for having seen you my dear.”

Lady Mary, with her head of fine-spun gold glittering in the sun, raised her hand to Mr Fox and said, “I wish to take a walk into town, will you accompany me Mr Fox?”

And Mr Fox bowed over her hand and raised it to his lips and said, “I would be delighted to my dear.” 

Lady Mary was young and Lady Mary was fair and Lady Mary was to be wed to Mr Fox. Lady Mary asked her bridegroom, “Mr Fox, Mr Fox, where shall we live, when we are wed?”

And Mr Fox replied, “Why we shall live in my castle my dear, when we are wed.”

And Lady Mary asked, “And where is your castle that we shall live in Mr Fox, when we are wed?”

“Why my dear, it is through the grey woods and across the stony stream and west of the bramble thicket, and I shall take you there when we are wed,” said Mr Fox.

“When we are wed,” agreed Lady Mary.

But Lady Mary was young, and Lady Mary was bold and Lady Mary did not want to wait until she was wed to see Mr Fox’s castle. And so, on the day before her wedding, when Mr Fox was, as he said, away on business, Lady Mary set off to visit her bridegroom’s castle.

Lady Mary walked through the grey woods and across the stony stream, and west of the bramble thicket she found a great castle built of white stone and surrounded by a deep wide moat. Lady Mary walked across the drawbridge and above the gate, she saw these words carved deep into the stone ‘Be Bold Be Bold’. Lady Mary was indeed bold, and so she pushed the gate open and walked through. 

Behind the gate was a wide courtyard paved in white stone and beyond that still stood the castle of her bridegroom glowing in the midday sun. Lady Mary crossed the courtyard and marvelled at the ornate garden spread out on either side of the courtyard. Brilliant blue peacocks walked across its emerald green lawn. Finally, she came to the great door that led into the castle. Over its arch were carved the words ‘Be Bold Be Bold, But Not Too Bold’. 

Lady Mary passed through the doorway into a great hall and from the hall up a wide staircase of gleaming marble and on and on until she found herself at a gallery lined with dark wooden doors on the one side and windows overlooking the garden on the other. And at the end of the gallery, she found a door over which were carved the words ‘Be Bold Be Bold But Not Too Bold, Lest Your Heart’s Blood Should Run Cold.’

Lady Mary gazed out the windows at the courtyard, and the garden, and the castle that would soon be hers, and as she looked she saw coming through the castle gate Mr Fox, and with him came a lovely lady with hair of midnight black in a dress of dove grey silk.

On the lady’s finger Mr Fox placed a ring of glowing sapphire ringed with glimmering diamonds. Then, taking the lady’s hand, Mr Fox drew the lady in dove grey silk towards to castle.

Quick as a though, Lady Mary darted pass the door above which were carved those ominous words. Behind it she found an armoury rigged about with weapons terrible and cruel to hew flesh from bone. And on a table, in the middle of the room, Lady Mary found a dagger wicked and sharp with a hilt set with deep red rubies. Lady Mary was young and Lady Mary was fair and Lady Mary was bold. And, as the sounds of two laughing people passed by the door, Lady Mary picked up the blade and put it in her pocket. 

Then, very softly, Lady Mary opened the door and slipped quietly back through the gallery, down the staircase, across the hallway and garden and courtyard until she came once again to the bramble thicket east of the castle. And then, she stopped and waited.

It was the wedding day of Lady Mary and Mr Fox, but Lady Mary neither ate nor drank. She sat beside her bridegroom as pale and as silent as a ghost.

“What ails you my dear?” Mr Fox asked, “that you should look so pale on our wedding day?”

Lady Mary fixed Mr Fox with her bright blue eyes and said, “I had a horrible dream last night and try as I might I cannot forget it.”

“Why then my love,” said Mr Fox, “you shall tell us all this dream so that we may assure you that it was a dream and nothing more.”

“Very well my love,” said Lady Mary and she smiled at her bridegroom though it did not reach her eyes. 

“I dreamed that yesterday, the day before our wedding day, I went for a walk through the grey woods and across the stony stream, and west of the bramble thicket I came to your castle with its walls of white stone surrounded by a deep wide moat, and over the gateway were carved the words ‘Be Bold, Be Bold’.”

“But it is not so”, said Mr Fox with a smile.

“I walked through the gate and past a courtyard of white stone, and when I came to the doorway of your castle, over it was carved ‘Be Bold, Be Bold But Not Too Bold’.”

“It is not so nor was it so”, said Mr Fox although his smile had dimmed. 

“And then, I went upstairs and came to a great gallery, and at the end of it was a door over which were carved the words ‘Be Bold, Be Bold But Not Too Bold, Lest Your Heart’s Blood Should Run Cold’.”

“But it is not so nor was it so,” said Mr Fox. And he would have taken the Lady Mary’s hand but she withdrew it and placed it on her lap.

“And then,” said the Lady Mary, “and then, I opened the door and the room was filled with the bodies of poor dead ladies all covered in blood.” And her eyes and smile as she gazed at her husband to be were as cold and as sharp as ice.

“It was not so, nor was it so, and god forbid it should be so,” said Mr Fox and he looked very hard at his bride.

“Then, I dreamed that I rushed down the gallery and, as I was going down the stairs, I saw you, Mr Fox, dragging after you a poor young lady with hair as dark as midnight in a dove grey dress.”

“It was not so, nor was it so, and god forbid it should be so,” Mr Fox said his face pale.

“And then,” said the Lady Mary, “as I hid behind a pillar, I saw you, Mr Fox, catch sight of a sapphire ring on the poor lady’s hand. And, as I watched, you drew your sword and you hacked off that poor lady’s hand.”

“It was not so, nor was it so, and god forbid it should be so!” cried Mr Fox jumping to his feet.

“But it was so and it is so,” cried Lady Mary, and from the pocket of her dress she drew forth a lady’s hand on which glowed a ring of sapphire ringed with glittering diamonds and flung it on the table in front of Mr Fox. 

Mr Fox stared at the hand and then at the Lady Mary, and his face was as white as the stone of his castle. “God forbid it should be so,” he whispered. 

Then, Lady Mary’s brothers and the wedding guests all rose up and the bold Lady Mary watched as they hacked Mr Fox to pieces.


End file.
